A circle of friends connected by gut touch! The “FIST BUMP” corner of the radio program “GRAND MARQUEE” features people who live and enjoy Tokyo in a relay format.
On August 9, Alyssa Ueno of the first-class architectural firm ULTRA STUDIO appeared on the show, introduced by Max McKee, founder of the outdoor guide “Kammui. We asked her about what inspired her to become an architect, the charms of Tokyo that she can see only after having lived abroad for about one-third of her life, and her new cultural and environmental activity “TŌGE”.
INDEX
From the Analysis of Representational Culture to the World of Architecture
Takano (MC): Max-san said that you are “an innovator that I admire.
Ueno: I thought about that yesterday, too, but you raised the bar tremendously and started with Max (laughs).
Takano: Everyone will raise the bar (laughs).
Celeina (MC): Let me start by introducing my profile: I was born in Tokyo in 1986. She spent her childhood and college years in England and Italy, and studied architecture at the AASchool and Royal College of Art in London. After gaining experience in design firms in Tokyo and London, he co-founded the first-class architectural firm ULTRA STUDIO in Tokyo in 2019. From 2021, as co-chair of TŌGE, you will be exploring a lifestyle that mixes people, nature, and artifacts in the forests of Karuizawa.
Takano: First of all, I would like to ask you why you decided to become an architect.
Ueno: I have been interested in cities since I was a child. I majored in art history at university and looked at the world from the perspective of analyzing representational culture, but I felt that simply analyzing things did not solve many problems for me. I wanted to face society and life with a positive attitude toward intervention and design, so I shifted my focus to architectural design.
Takano: What do you mean by representational culture?
Ueno: I guess you could say everything that is visible. At university, I studied not only paintings, but also movies, cities, and all kinds of things that can be seen and analyzed.
Celeina: Architects are said to be very hard to study. How was it for you, Ueno-san?
Ueno: I spent quite a long time as a student. But I feel like my work is all about learning, and I have a lot to learn every day.
Celeina: Do you enjoy learning?
Ueno: Yes, I do. Maybe people who think learning is fun are doing architecture.
INDEX
Tokyo’s attractiveness is due to the large number of permanent residents.
Takano: Also, you spent time in England and Italy, so about one-third of your life was spent overseas?
Ueno: That’s right.
Takano: Now that you have chosen Tokyo as your place of work, what is the reason for that?
Ueno: Originally, in the world of architecture, Japan is said to be at the cutting edge. In fact, I thought it was very interesting even when I was in England. The two people who run the office with me now are quite interesting and strange people, and I had the chance to meet them about 10 years ago, which made me think about setting up a base in Tokyo and working together with them.
Celeina: Yes, like Max-san from yesterday, you have friends in Japan and you worked together with them, and that’s how you came to live in Japan.
Ueno: Yes. I think friends are quite a big factor.
Takano: I think that living abroad may change the way we see Tokyo.
Ueno: I think about this a lot, but compared to other international cities, Tokyo has more permanent residents. In London, for example, there are many people who come here in their 20s and leave. This is partly because there are many universities in the area, but recently land prices have gone up too much, and once the student years are over, creators cannot afford to live here. I feel that if this happens, culture will gradually disappear. I think Tokyo is very attractive because such a phenomenon does not occur very often.
Celeina: I had never thought about it.
Takano: I guess it is your unique point of view.
Celeina: What do you find attractive about Tokyo, other than the environment in which you live, both in Japan and abroad? It could be the food, for example.
Ueno: Food, of course (laughs). (laughs). Max-san said yesterday that Tokyo is the best place in the world. The other thing is the proximity to Asia. During the past two months, I have had the opportunity to visit China on a business trip and Europe on a private trip, and I find the current culture in China very interesting, and I think it is very attractive to have easy access to such places.
Celeina: It is true that China is growing rapidly and changing rapidly.
Takano: That is one way of looking at it. Now, I asked Ueno-san to choose a song that he would like everyone to listen to together on the radio at this time. What song would it be?
Ueno: It’s called “Trees Among Shrubs” by Men I Trust. The melody itself is very dreamy, but the lyrics are a little sad.
Takano: Thank you very much. Let’s listen to the song.
INDEX
The “Kamoshika Beverage” was born out of the cultural environmental activity “TŌGE
Celeina: Ms. Ueno, while you are working in architecture, you are also working on a project called TŌGE in Karuizawa from 2021.
Ueno: This is a project that I started together with an artist who moved to Nagano about two years ago. We are developing various experimental projects in a mountain forest called “Hareyama” in Karuizawa, breaking down life into food (eating), nurturing (growing), and housing (living). Among us, we have recently been calling it “cultural environmental activities.
Takano: What exactly are they?
Ueno: As for food, we make drinks, which I will introduce later. We also make maple syrup from maple trees.
Celeina: From maple trees in Karuizawa?
Ueno: It ‘s a lot of work (laughs). (laughs) We also collaborated with an artist, and finally collaborated with a Japanese confectionary artist to pour it all over mizu-yokan.
Celeina: Looks delicious. …… Is the drink you mentioned earlier going on sale this month?
Ueno: Yes, we will be launching a new drink called “Kamoshika Beverage” on August 23.
Celeina: Wjat does the name mean?
Ueno: There is an antelope that we sometimes meet in the forest. It’s a drink made from trees, and drinking it relaxes you as if you were in the forest. They are very chirpy animals, and when you get close to them, they just stand there looking at you. They don’t run away. That’s where I got the name.
Celeina: I see. It’s a kind of relaxation.
Takano: You brought it to the studio today.
Ueno: This is made from thinned wood from the mountain there. This is a project to reconsider the relationship between people, nature, and man-made objects. One idea I had was to see if we could use them for something other than chips and the like, so I tried to make something that would be a luxury item, or something like that.
Celeina: So you created a drink out of the excess wood that had to be cut down. That’s amazing!
Takano: The packaging is very stylish, like a wine bottle.
Celeina: Is this extracted from the tree?
Ueno: It is made from a combination of boiled and distilled into a syrup. What we are bringing to the studio today is soda, but we have both this and syrup.
Takano: It says, “This is a beverage for drinking wood. Can I have it?
Ueno: Go ahead.
Takano: (Smells it.) It smells really good.
Celeina: It’s like being in a forest.
Takano: (Drinking) It’s delicious.
Celeina: (Drinking) Wait a minute. It’s super delicious.
Takano: So this is the taste of the forest. What do you think?
Celeina: Please give me an echo, Foresty…….
Takano: What is that? (laughs)
Celeina: Thank you very much. I want to do it (laughs). It’s soothing, it smells great, and it tastes slightly sweet. Chill.
Takano: It’s quite refreshing. It has an amazing woody aroma spreading in my mouth.
Celeina: The aroma that goes through your nose after drinking is also very pleasant.
Takano: Lovely. This will be available from August 23?
Ueno: It will be available online from the 23rd, so hurry up and sample it today.
Celeina: Thank you very much. If you are interested in Kamoshika beverages, please check out our Instagram for updates. Now, FIST BUMP is a circle of friends connected by gutta touch, so we are asking you to introduce us to your friends. What kind of people will you introduce us to, Ueno-san?
Ueno: Toshihiko Tanabe, a creative director.
Celeina: What is your relationship with him?
Ueno: First of all, he is a creative director who travels around the world, and he was speaking at the same event as Snowden in Croatia the other day. Recently, he directed the GUCCI video featuring Hikari Mitsushima and Aoi Yamada. He himself spent his childhood in Europe, and although he has moved from place to place, he and I are the kind of friends who always say to each other that Tokyo is great.
Celeina: In a word, how would you describe him?
Ueno: “A vampire who works hard and plays hard” (laughs).
Celeina: Thank you (laughs). Tomorrow, we will connect with Creative Director Toshihiko Tanabe. Today we have Ms. Yurisa Ueno from ULTRA STUDIO. Thank you very much.
Ueno: Thank you very much.
GRAND MARQUEE
J-WAVE (81.3FM) Mon-Thu 16:00 – 18:50
Navigator: Shinya Takano, Celeina Ann
